Category: Travels

I made my way to the western Hunan national park area of Zhangjiajie at just the right time, two weeks after the Spring Festival, in the middle of the February lull. The fabled towering cliffs, deep canyons, silent caves, and crystal clear lakes, along with the fancy new tourist infrastructure like the world’s longest glass bottom bridge across the Zhangjiajie canyon, drew record numbers of domestic tourists this year. I had many of the spots nearly to myself, however.

The blue skies, and huge fluffy white clouds towering above the almost-barren first steps of the great Tibetan plateau didn’t stop amazing me the entire time I was in Qinghai, in the west of China. Â Sure, it was only a long weekend, but what a striking;ly different place from Beijing. Â Hardly enough to purge Beijing from my lungs and skin, let alone my spirit… but interacting with Chinese people who are not directly invested in the business or government happenings in the capital is an important experience that I don’t have nearly enough.

By Qinghai Lake, the largest inland lake in the Middle Kingdom.

Blue skies of Qinghai, China

A lot of Tibetan and other cultures and religions represented in Qinghai.

Sichuan special è±†èŠ± and Â è±†è„‘, soft tofu in different forms, very soft and delicious. More fresh mountain greens and pickles. In Emei town, at the food of Mt. Emei.

A small shop on the steep path up Mt. Emei. The old woman waiting patiently for hungry passer-byers disappeared behind the small building long enough for me to hear the abrupt “squawk” that heralded the end of lunch’s free roaming life… a few minutes later, this delicious chicken, sour bamboo and chili dish arrived.

The famous æ°´ç…®é±¼ï¼Œfish filet boiled in wonderful èŠ±æ¤’ numbing peppers and chili.

In the smaller city of Yibin, fish slices and chili of all sorts.

The wonderful selection of fresh veggies, pickles, and dumplings and buns. 20 RMB for a plate, all you can fit on it!

The Chinese New Year this year, welcoming the year of the Sheep, was a great opportunity to get out of the capital city, Beijing, and see the holiday from a very different perspective. Not only is the Province of Sichuan ethnically different, with many more ethnic minorities, including a very large Tibetan population, but the practice of religion is much more widespread, the history is quite distinct from that of Beijing, the landscape and climate are incredibly different, and, perhaps above all else, it is simply not as urban and the attitude of most of the people I encountered reflected that.

Everyone was so busy either being a tourist or doing their own holiday thing, that it was a great opportunity for me to watch people, and simply be a more or less ignored observer.

So, a “People of Sichuan” series.

The New Year events, such as the light and lantern festival, and the traditional performances, attract people from all walks of life. The festivals seem to be held in parks, temples, or other such public spaces.

Biking is, indeed, a fairly common form of transportation in dense urban areas, such as downtown Chengdu, the provincial capital.

A fairly universal characteristic of Chinese cities is the virtual armies of orange clad public employees sweeping the streets.

This group of young monks seemed to be on a sort of pilgrimage to see, and pray to, the giant Buddha at Leshan.Â

Playing cards where three rivers join in the city of Yibin.

Fruit seller at the night market, the night before New Year’s Eve, Yibin.Â

A Buddhist nun preparing for that evening’s New Year celebration at the temple.Â

A team of chefs, members of the minority from Xinjiang, famous for their lamb kabobs.Â

OK, so the pictures uploaded in reverse order… but you get the idea. The temple at the “Golden Peak” sits at over 3,000 meters. The map said I hiked over 15 kilometers from the base to the top… my legs sure felt like it. I stayed at a hotel near the summit and hiked up the next morning for the sunrise.

The climate in this part of Sichuan is very humid, even in February, and although it wasn’t particularly cold, the wet air made it easy to get a chill.

Above the clouds on Mt. Emei.

Locals wandered the streets of Emei Town outside the park selling pairs of small steel spikes that hikers could tie on the bottom of their shoes. I bought a pair, assuming it was just a tourist thing. But it turns out they were completely necessary once I approached the summit, where the snow had packed down on the stone stairs, becoming a virtual ice slide.

The predawn hike up the final few kilometers was completely worth it, as the sun rose up and across the mountains, illuminating the sea of clouds below.

Monkeys in the monestary. Emei mountain has several old Buddhist monestaries that perch on its cliffs. It also has an abundance of monkeys that have grown far too bold as local tourists throw food at them.

The week before the Chinese New Year holiday, there were probably fewer fellow hikers than at any other time of the year.

The church on the cliff in Amasra, Turkey, on the Black Sea coast, was built in the early AD’s, then destroyed, rebuilt, then turned into a mosque, then back into a church, saw medieval castle walls rise around it and crumble away, and then turned into a mosque again.

Turkey’s Black Sea coast has patiently waited out the rise and fall of empires and civilizations, tribes and armies and kings and generals slaughtering and assimilating each other for control of heaven on earth ports, Amasra chief among them.
The Amazons, Phoenicians, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, and Ottomans have all come and gone.
Today, for the few months of summer anyway, Amasra is a coveted refuge away from the realities of Turkish life (few foreigners seem to holiday here), with a thriving industry of fish restaurants and beach chair renters, and UNESCO World Heritage medieval ruins.
If only I had more than two days.